Dakota's Big Speech

Freshman year of high school was all Ds and Fs for Dakota Rockwell, who stopped going to school to take care of his dying mom. He contributes part of her death to not having health insurance, because she dropped out of high school and her part-time jobs didn't offer it and she couldn't afford it on her own. That woke him up to the importance of education, and 9 months after her death he made the Honor Roll for the first time. After getting his A.A. at St. Pete College, he transferred to USF as a junior in the Business School, made possible by something called the Good Karma Scholarship.
(August 29, 2014, Tampa Bay ) [Melissa Lyttle | Times]